1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens barrel, and more precisely, it relates to a supporting apparatus for a flexible printed circuit board connected to a cylindrical shutter unit in a lens barrel.
This application is related to commonly assigned application U.S. Ser. No. 07/602,176, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
2. Description of Related Art
In a lens shutter type of camera, a cylindrical shutter unit is provided in a lens barrel. As is well known, the shutter unit drives a focusing lens group in accordance with a distance signal of a subject to be photographed, detected by an object distance measuring device, and opens and closes shutter blades in accordance with a luminance signal of the subject as detected by a light measuring device. The shutter unit is usually provided on its front end face with driving signal terminals which are connected to the front end of a flexible printed circuit board, which will be referred to as an FPC board hereinafter. The FPC board extends along the circumference of the shutter unit to the rear side of the camera body, to be connected to a control circuit provided in the camera body, through a guide means.
The FPC board is adhered to the shutter unit by an adhesive tape or an adhesive or the like so as not to move or extend outwardly from the peripheral surface of the shutter unit. However, the shutter unit (i.e., the outer diameter thereof) is made as small as possible to realize a compact and small camera, and, accordingly, shutter components, such as a driving gear or a spring, are partially exposed from the shutter unit. Accordingly, upon adhering the FPC board to the shutter unit, the adhesive tape or the adhesive must be carefully used so as not to interfere with the exposed shutter components, which is a very troublesome operation.